Featured App

A Better Camera

Today's roundup is presented by A Better Camera from Almalence. Android phone cameras are improving at an almost constant rate, but the software behind them often leaves a lot to be desired. If your standard camera app is missing out on some of the features you want, give A Better Camera a try. It has 11 shooting modes for the right photo at the right time, including portrait smile detection, panorama assist, night mode, and object removal. A Better Camera is free, but some shooting modes require an in-app purchase after trying them out.

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Forget about having dozens of camera apps. A Better Camera does everything you need. A number of top ranked Android camera apps such as HDR Camera+, Night Camera+ and HD Panorama+ have been melted into A Better Camera to provide you with the best, all-purpose, full featured camera app. Video has great features, such as time lapse, and can be used with focus lock, exposure lock and white balance lock. Being open to 3rd party developers, this application aggregates the experience of Android developers community to provide you with the most complete set of the best imaging features ever.

HDR: vivid colors and rich detail, photos looking like taken with a DSLR and processed with Pro software

Panorama: up to 360 degrees, up to 100 MPix

Unwanted objects removal: remove objects from the photo with a tap

Night mode: capture sharp and noise-free photos in any illumination

Group portrait: make everyone smile, fuse faces from series of photos into one

Apps

Link Bubble

There have been a lot of "floating apps" set adrift in the Play Store in the last year, most of which border on useless. Link Bubble is decidedly not useless, and for the user with the right frame of mind, it might change the way you use your phone. It's basically a tiny browser that loads links from other apps in the background, expanding to full screen only when you want it to. This can drastically reduce time spend switching between apps. The pro version, a $5 upgrade, lets you load multiple pages at a time and works "over" multiple apps.

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Link Bubble is an all-new browser designed and crafted solely with mobile devices in mind.

• When you click on a link in an app, Link Bubble loads that webpage in the background, leaving you free to keep using your current app rather than your precious time being wasted watching a page load. Once the page has fully loaded, it will animate on screen.• Link Bubble's flick physics allow you to go from clicking a link to sharing a link or adding it to a service such as Pocket in little more than a second.• Load multiple links from your current app at the same time (requires Pro).

AdWords Express

It's easy to forget that Google isn't some benevolent software god in the sky - their business is, and always has been, advertising. Now they're making it a little easier to create ads and place them with the AdWords Express app. Just write a classified-style ad, select the geographical area you'd like to target, pay, and you're done. Unfortunately the app only works for the United States at the moment.

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Please note that this app is for AdWords Express in the U.S., and it will not work for AdWords accounts. AdWords Express helps you reach new customers on Google. Create your ad in less than 15 minutes, and only pay when potential customers click your ad to visit your website or give you a call. Stay connected to how your ad is doing -- all from your mobile device.

Minuum Keyboard Free

Minuum is one of those weird keyboards that tries to change the paradigm. Whether it succeeds or not is a matter of opinion, but thankfully you won't have to pay to decide for yourself. The app is finally out of beta, so you can try the one-row, sliding keyboard without signing up for anything. The idea is to combine maximum screen real estate with speedy typing. (You can expand it into a full keyboard at any time.) The free trial works for 30 days, and if you like it, you can unlock the full version for four bucks.

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MINUUM - The smarter, smaller keyboard that lets you do more with your screen space. It’s the little keyboard for big fingers. Minuum takes up less than half the screen space of regular keyboards while still allowing you to type delightfully fast and surprisingly sloppy—all thanks to revolutionary new auto-correction. Spend 15 seconds with the introductory tutorial and you'll be able to start typing with Minuum—instantly. The more you type, the better Minuum gets. Try it now.

Cast Store for Chromecast

Here's a useful little app that catalogs all the new Chromecast apps hitting the Play Store. It's not an app store in itself (which is why it hasn't been removed), just a series of links to new and popular Chromecast tools. The apps are broken up by category, and you can select your favorites for easy retrieval. Cast Store is free with advertising.

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Are you using Chromecast by Google or CheapCast on another device? Google Play is at this moment a mess and it's hard to find Chromecast-Apps. You'll find with this app an overview about all Google Cast compatible Apps in the Google Play Store. Time by time I'm going to add more apps und some information about them.

MarkAsRead for Gmail (Beta)

Considering all the spam and promotional garbage we get, this app is a godsend for the AP team. It's a complex little work-around that allows you to mark an incoming Gmail message as "read" without ever having to open the app, which is a much bigger deal than it sounds like. You'll have to be OK with some of your personal information being sent to a remote server, which is probably a deal-breaker for some users.

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MarkAsRead allows you to mark a Gmail e-mail as read directly from the notification. It works by intercepting and cloning the notification as it comes in and adding in the extra "Read" button. MarkAsRead tries to stay out of the way by closely mimicking how your regular Gmail notification looks and behaves. No more relying on archive and reply. MarkAsRead runs in the background and also automatically starts on startup. We never store or upload any of your personal information anywhere.

SDFix: KitKat Writable MicroSD

Google changed the way that apps can access a MicroSD card in KitKat. Lots of people are pissed. You can always try your hand at a custom ROM or simply avoid updating to Android 4.4, but that's not exactly an ideal solution. If you're a root user, this little app will let other apps access storage on a MicroSD card beyond their virtual private folders. If you don't know what that means, don't worry, it probably doesn't affect you. If you do, you probably want this right away.

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NextApp SDFix will modify the configuration file located at /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml to allow apps to write to the MicroSD card. Specifically, SDFix will add the Android UNIX group "media_rw" to the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission's configuration. This will enable apps (only those that you granted write access permissions to when you installed them) to write files to the MicroSD card. On many devices, this is effectively reverting the state of this permission back to the way it was configured in Android 4.3.

uPod light – Podcast player

uPod has been a long time coming, but it's finally available in a non-beta version for fans of the former GoodNews Reader. uPod relies on standard RSS feeds, not Feedly, so you'll have to input your podcasts manually if they're not popular enough to be in the catalog. Once you do, you're given an organized UI with the option to download and/or stream, and video podcasts are supported. There's also a handy audio-only mode. The free app allows for two hours of testing before requiring a $4.49 upgrade.

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The brand new podcast player at Google play. with outstanding features like cross device synchronization, inbox and library concept and a modern, holo-based, coverart centric design.

Fiverr® for Android

Fiverr has been around for a while. It's a website that lets people offer simple, easy tasks for five bucks, usually having something to do with marketing, graphics design, or writing. (Yes, most writers are poor. I'll accept $5 donations for almost nothing.) The new Android app ties into the service, essentially reproducing the website and allowing you to browse the listing of $5 services and pay for them without a browser.

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Fiverr,® the world’s largest marketplace for services, is finally available for Android™ users. Everything you love about Fiverr is now available for Android. Buying & selling on Fiverr has never been as simple, fast and fun. Find Gigs you love, anytime, anywhere. The Fiverr mobile experience gives you instant access to over 3 million awesome services, starting at $5. Choose from a community of talented, creative freelancers in 120 categories, from all over the world.

Flood - American Red Cross

The American Red Cross is back with another one of their incredibly useful disaster apps. This one's geared towards floods, with good timing, since flood and hurricane season is fast approaching. If you've seen the previous apps, you know what to expect: lots of preparedness information, quizzes to buff up your disaster action knowledge, and information for when it actually strikes, including the locations of disaster relief centers. The app is free with no in-app purchases.

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Get your family and home ready for a flood. The American Red Cross Flood app is the complete solution you need to understand and prepare for flooding and all that comes with it. With interactive quizzes and simple step-by-step advice it’s never been easier to be ready.

• Simple step-by-step instructions to help you know what-to-do even if the cell towers and TVs are down. Prioritized actions for before, during, and after requires no mobile connectivity• Help distant friends and family in areas prone to flooding with the ability to receive flood and flash flood watches and warning alerts based on their location from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration• Red Cross location-based open shelters map for when you need it most

Photowall for Chromecast

Here's an interesting little experiment from Google - emphasis on "experiment." This app lets you turn your Chromecast-connected TV into a photo collage, then you can invite others to add photos directly from Chrome (mobile or desktop). It's definitely a little buggy at the moment, but the idea is interesting.

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Photowall for Chromecast is a new Chrome Experiment that lets people collaborate with images on the TV - using phones or tablets. Anyone can take a picture and send it to a Photowall to instantly see it on the big screen. When you’re finished, a YouTube video of your Photowall is automatically generated. Perfect for sharing with everyone who took part.

Drizly

If you live in certain parts of Boston or New York, you can now get a quick booze refill without having to venture out to the store. Drizly calls up your local liquor store and gets them to deliver it, at the same price you'd pay at the counter - just tip your driver. You can even track your delivery if you're truly desperate. Drizly is planning to expand to other cities, but for the moment it's unfortunately limited to Manhattan, Brooklyn, and a few areas of Boston.

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Drizly is alcohol delivery from your phone to your feet in approximately 30-60 minutes. Input your delivery address, add your favorite beer, wine, or liquor, checkout with your credit card on file, and your order will be delivered to your doorstep in an hour. It really is that easy. We do multi-factor authentication/validation on IDs for every delivery - you must be 21 to use the Drizly service.

Al Jazeera America News

Took 'em a while huh? Al Jazeera's American English arm now has a mobile app to compliment the (somewhat) new service, tying into the web stories for each piece of breaking news. If they took their time getting an Android app together, it looks like it was time well-spent: the app's user interface is interesting and image-focused, with embedded spoken audio clips where appropriate. The app includes a full schedule of the cable news channel.

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Download the free Al Jazeera America News app now and get more depth and more perspectives on the most important U.S. and global news stories of the day. Swipe through top news picks and listen to the latest stories read aloud via our unique hands-free "commuter mode."

Top articles covering national and international news topics like politics, education, culture, business, and more - straight from the Al Jazeera America newsroom

Beautiful photo-rich navigation

Breaking news alerts to keep you in the know

Audio Commuter feature powered by Umano lets you listen to the day's news read aloud by real people

Remember the Umbrella

Here's a simple, attractive app that regularly sends you a notification if (and only if) you need to prepare for the weather. (LA residents who panic at the sight of a few drops, this is for you.) I love the idea of an unobtrusive weather app that only alerts you when you need it to. Throw in a gorgeous UI and an option for audio alerts (including a spoken voice) and Remember the Umbrella is definitely worth your attention.

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Is it going to rain today? Should you grab your umbrella? With Remember The Umbrella, you don't have to guess: Set a time when you normally leave the house. The app checks the weather forecast, and if it's going to rain, you get a notification letting you know you should take an umbrella today. The notification looks awesome, by the way. Just saying: It's not one of your boring notifications that slides out of the top. We're talking full-screen here, with a gorgeous backdrop and a weather forecast.

Maps Measure

Google Maps used to have a handy tape measure feature that let you figure out the distance between two points, or along a pointed route. That seems to have gone away, but this handy app brings the feature back, better than ever. Now you can check distances on all the map modes (including the 3D view) and throw in the area of a specified place for good measure. Get it? Measure. Ha.

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Simple app to measure distances and areas in Google Maps. Just click on the map to add different points - Maps Measure will then calculate the distance or the area between those points. Tab on the text at the top or swipe in from the left size to access more options, long-click on the trash icon to delete all set points.

Newsbeat

Keeping up with the news is hard, but Newsbeat hopes to make it easier with narrated summaries. Pick your location and publications and you'll get fully-voiced snippets of news delivered to the app, perfect for catching up on the bus or train. It's almost like a news break on an old-fashioned radio network - remember those? A selection of sources and topics means that you won't be bored. Local weather and traffic is icing on the cake.

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Ever wonder if you can listen to the news that you choose? On your way to work or while going home in the evening, wouldn’t it be wonderful to get caught up with latest news that is personalized to you? With the Newsbeat app, you can pick the news that you want to hear - from a large collection of high quality, trusted, local publications as well as national news organizations. We pull together your news program based on your choices, boil the stories down to concise 1-minute summaries, and narrate them at a comfortable, pleasant pace.

Frequency: App Usage Tracking

Want to get some really depressing information about your crippling Candy Crush addiction? The Frequency is the app for you. It's got one and one function: tracking all your apps to see how often you use each one. The interface is simple but functional, and users can select how often it polls in the background to tweak for accuracy or battery performance with the $1 pro upgrade. If you'd rather not be faced with your addiction, you can blacklist certain apps from appearing.

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Frequency: the newest and best-looking way to see what apps you use, how much you use them, and when you use them. See what apps you never use and uninstall them right from the app.

Holo Card UI design

View all apps you have used in the timeframe, or all apps you have installed in the timeframe

Show the amount of time you have used your apps Today, Last Week, Last Month, Last 3 Months, or All Time

CastPad for Chromecast

Want to play Pictionary on your Chromecast? How about simply having a chalkboard where you didn't have one before? Enter CastPad, an app that lets you turn any Chromecast-equipped TV into a doodle pad. It's quite simple and incredibly useful under a few admittedly specific conditions. The free version includes black and blue inks, and the $2 IAP upgrade adds 30 colors and removed the advertisements.

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CastPad lets you draw on your phone and see it show up instantly on your TV and all other devices connected to the Chromecast.

The Free Version includes:* 3 colors: Black, white (acts as an eraser), and blue

The Premium Purchase (available as an in-app purchase) includes:* 30 colors* Removes the ad* Any and all future premium features that get released

GALAXY S5 Experience

At this point we've done so much reporting on the Galaxy S5 and the new Gears that you probably know if you want one or not. But if you're still on the fence (somehow), Samsung hopes to change your mind with this promotional app. It features info and videos on all the new Sammy goodies from Mobile World Congress, with breakdowns of all the device functions. It works with any Android phone running 4.0 or higher... unlike the Gears themselves.

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Samsung GALAXY S5 Experience App provides interactive introduction on GALAXY S5 and Wearable Devices(Gear2 , Gear Fit) with 4 different categories such as Camera / Speed / Fitness / Life. Find out everything about the GALAXY S5's amazing features through this easy to use GALAXY S5 Experience App

EverClip

Need a faster way to get information into Evernote? Just copy it to your phone or tablet clipboard, and EverClip will zip it to the notation service right away. It mostly runs in the background, but you can pull up EverClip at any time to get a history of your saved information. As a nice bonus, there's a "text expander" feature that will paste any text you like automatically when you enter a keyword.

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EverClip is made for gathering and processing information quickly and easily. You can share any information to EverClip and save it to Evernote. Text copied to clipboard will be automatically add to EverClip. It also recognizes urls and downloads the corresponding data. Do you have phrases which you write very often. With Text Expander you can create a snippet with an abbreviation. Typing this abbr. in any text box will expand it with the saved phrase. NOTE: Text Expander only works on Android with Jelly Bean.

Sidebar Launcher

Hey, look, another swipe-activated launcher. This one takes the "kitchen sink" approach, adding in just about every shortcut and tool you might want, including a few that are only for root users. For those so inclined, it should be possible to embed enough tools and triggers that a conventional home screen becomes more or less redundant, though whether or not this actually works better is up to you.

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Sidebar Launcher brings you the most fantastic way to multi-tasking on your phone and tablet. With the exclusive design of "Card", you will feel the most incredible efficiency when you're operating on your device. Sidebar Launcher is floating on any apps. You can swipe to show it any where and any time. So, what is "Card"? Card is a defined as a single/group of function. Add/Remove card as you want, make Sidebar Launcher be your very personal assistant.

Ebates Cash Back & Coupons

Ebates is an online shopping platform that works kind of like a credit card rewards system and a coupon book combined. You can't buy just anything, but if you're careful and selective, you can get some impressive rewards. The official Android app makes it easy to find applicable stores and products, and it includes notifications for when new deals are added. Sign in with an Ebates account and you can check your history and current savings.

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Ebates.com pays you to shop online. Earn up to 26% Cash Back every time you shop with a FREE account. In fact, you will get a $5 bonus when you make your first purchase. Ebates works with 1,700 stores including Sephora, JCPenney, Kohl's, Home Depot, Overstock.com, Groupon, and Walmart, so you are sure to find your favorites. In addition to Cash Back, Ebates has thousands of great online coupons, free shipping, and special offers from its stores, so you always get the best deal.

Fleep

Hey look, another team-focused chat platform. This one doesn't necessarily add any amazing new features over competing services, but if your work or team uses Fleep, you've probably been waiting quite a while for an Android app. It works across all supported platforms, including email for non-registered users.

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Fleep is chat for dynamic teams.

Have one-to-one and group conversations with your team or anyone on the outside

When you attach files to your messages, they're always available to people in the conversation

You can chat with anyone. They don't need to be Fleep users, or to even sign up. Just add people to a conversation by their email address. Then, simply write your message. They'll receive messages and files as emails, and their replies will flow back to Fleep.

Xpensy

Xpensy might not be the most full-featured expense tracking app out there, but it sure is purdy. If you're the kind of person who processes information better with a visual layout, this app may be better all around (assuming you don't need the advanced functions of other budget apps). Results are laid out into an unconventional "infographic" view.

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Xpensy is an app for tracking daily/weekly/monthly expenses and visualizing them into an awesome infographic. Without pretending to be an accountant, it offers seven main categories of expenses, and allows managing them with ease. Sharp, intuitive, stylish, flat, clean, minimal, colorful, funky and all the other attributes that go for an awesome app.

SmartTM

SmartTM integrates a complex organization app that aims to cram all of your calendar and time management functions into one place. It's a dizzying mix of tasks, to-dos, notifications, and ties to outside services like Google Calendar and Evernote. It all seems like it's more trouble than it's worth to me, but if you're dedicated "Getting Things Done" proponent (or just a user of the cloud service) it might be useful.

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SmartTM makes it easy to get work done with anyone from anywhere you are. What can I do with SmartTM?

• Work on tasks, projects and notes• track progress of your life• Real-time notifications thanks to Reminders• Mobile - work from anywhere (phone, tablet)• Works with Google Calendar, Apple iCal, Microsoft Exchange Cal- Schedule your tasks, Evernote - create a task from note• Attach any Evernote documents to tasks as reference,• SmartReview – Review your weekly tasks.• Smart processing that helps you to deal with all data in your Inbox automatically and use one of the most important GTD® rules – “Inbox Zero... and much more.

Tribesports Training

Tribesports is a sportswear brand a la Nike or Adidas. And like its competitors, Tribesports now has a training app for Android. According to the description, it's considerably more versatile than the fitness apps made by other clothing brands, but whether it's better than other apps like Runtastic will probably depend on your personal regimen. It's free with no in-app purchases.

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One of the world’s biggest online sports communities brings you the #1 app for monitoring all your sports activities for FREE. Perfect for the all-round sportsperson who wants to track all training in one place. Log workouts, training, sports and classes; GPS track your runs, rides, walks and more. Get real-time stats & progress graphs, all for FREE. The Tribesports Training App can do much more than the other sports apps available.

CMT

As a native Texan, I'm begging you: please don't watch CMT. It's the redneck equivalent of mainlining the bottom rung of MTV in one arm and VH1 in the other. But if you absolutely must watch the worst that cable TV has to offer, you can now do it from the comfort of your phone (complete with a "Country Strong" sticker on the back). Cable subscribers get access to full episodes, everyone else will have to settle for clips and social features.

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The CMT App brings you all the latest video from CMT’s hit series. For the first time, you can enjoy full episodes from your favorite CMT shows on your Android device and watch them anytime and anywhere. Check out CMT’s top shows from your Android device. Simply sign in with your TV provider to watch full episodes of select CMT series. Access is included with your TV subscription to participating providers.

WTF App(s) Of The Week

Interrupting Goat

Goats can yell and scream in a manner that is distressingly similar to human speech patterns. This app screams at you like a goat. (Or possibly it's just a guy screaming into his microphone.) Yeah, I don't know why either.

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It's exactly what it sounds like. He'll interrupt you, your friends, coworkers, dinner, funerals, and pretty much anything else. He doesn't even care - he's a goat. P.S. Make sure your volume's up real nice, the goat's not a fan of being stifled.